Castle Rock Forever
by lovelovelove198090
Summary: (Formerly Known as Teddy's Girl) Jugs Lake had moved to Castle Rock in fifth grade, but by seventh grade, it was like she was born there. The only problem was how boring such a little town was, nothing like the growing metropolis of LA. Jugs was leaving after high school, going to be famous, and having wild times along the way. But what if she was destined for suburban life?
1. Prologue

In January 1957, Castle Rock had 1, 278 people. In May, there were 1, 281, after the whole Lake family moved. Gordie Lachance and his three friends were hoping for a new boy in town. Instead they got a girl, Betty Lake. She moved in next door to Vern Tessio, which was how he was able to report the disappointing news.

"Guys," he said, after entering the treehouse. "It's a girl." "Damn," Teddy muttered. "HI," they heard a female voice. "She followed you," Gordie asked, miffed. "W-well, I couldn't get her to go away," Vern stuttered. "She said she'd beat me up." "Oh, great," Gordie said. "Now we're going to have some _girl _bothering us." "Man, chill," Chris said. "If we don't say anything, she'll go away."

"I see you guys up there," she shouted. Teddy rolled his eyes. "I'll handle this." He climbed down from the treehouse. "Look, chick," he started. And then he saw her chest. Even though she was wearing a fuzzy white sweater, it stuck out like a red flag in a snowstorm. She was tan, with long curly brown hair, a round face, and bright blue eyes. "Hi, my name's-" Teddy looked her up and down. "Jugs."

Betty shrugged. "That works." "Hey, Jugs," Teddy said, regaining his composure. "Go the hell home. No girls allowed." Jugs rolled her eyes. "What, are you guys a bunch of homos?" "N-no," Teddy stuttered. "Just go away." "Fine." Jugs started walking away, but turned back around. "What happened to your ear?" Teddy put his hands in his pocket. "My dad held my ear to the stove." "Oh." Teddy stared at her for a minute. "Go on, git," he said, louder. "I get it," Jugs whispered. "You don't want your friends to hear?" He nodded, and Jugs walked away.

Two days later, the gang ran into Jugs outside of the ice cream parlor. "You stalking us or something," Teddy asked. "Hell no," Jugs said. "I have better things to do with my time. But while you guys are here, I have a little bet for you." "How much," Teddy asked, curious. "I'm not sure we should do this," Vern said nervously. "She's a girl," Teddy asserted, if she weren't there. "We'll beat her ass at whatever little game she wants to play."

"What are the terms," Gordie asked. "If you win," Jugs said. "I'll leave you guys alone for the rest of the year. If I win, I hang out with you guys whenever I want for the same amount of time." "You're on," Teddy said, before the others could respond. "Teddy, what if we can't do it," Gordie hissed. "She's a girl," Teddy whispered back, as if this were sufficient reassurance. "What's the bet?"

Jugs grinned. "I'm going eat an entire pint of Blue Bunny before tubby over here does, without getting brainfreeze _or _throwing up." "It's Vern," Vern piped up. "Whatever. You in or you out?" "He's in," Teddy shouted. "No, I'm not. You're nuts." Teddy rolled his eyes. "Look, just do it. You gotta have at least fifty pounds on her. You can beat her, easy."

"Is he gonna do it or what," Jugs said. "Fine," Vern said. Jugs raced in the store and bought the two pints. She and Vern ate as fast as they could. Five minutes later, Vern put the ice cream. "Ugh," he groaned. "Brainfreeze." Jugs smirked and kept on going. In ten minutes, she ate the last spoonful while Vern was still halfway through.

"I win," Jugs said victoriously. Chris and Gordie groaned. "Nice going, Teddy," Gordie mumbled. "How was I supposed to know she had a tapeworm," he snapped back. "So," Teddy said. "We going to the treehouse?" "Ooo, ooo, ooo," Jugs perked up. "Can we go to the McDonald's that just opened first?" "McDonald's," Vern asked. "Yeah, I saw it on my way over." "What's McDonald's," Teddy asked. "It's a burger place where you can get your food at the counter and you can leave with it in a bag if you want, and their fries are so good, and so are the hamburgers," Jugs said. "And they've got good milkshakes too." "How come you know so much about if it's new," Gordie asked. "'Cause they had one back home."

"So what," Teddy asked. "Are you the spokeswoman?" "No," Jugs said. "It's just good. I can't believe you guys have never heard of McDonald's. I hope they got a department store around here, or at least a movie theater. Otherwise, this is a complete hick town." "This ain't a hick town," Chris said, finally irritated. "Where the hell are you from anyway?" "The best city in the whole world." "New York," Vern asked. "Hell no. New York's trash. I'm from Los Angeles, California."

"Oh, that's why you're so tan," Gordie said. "Don't get used to the sun. Winter in Oregon'll freeze your ass off." Jugs rolled her eyes. "It's not like I was born in California. We moved there when I was in second grade. I was born in Illinois. I'm used to it." Teddy studied her for a minute. "What'cha lookin' at," Jugs said. "Nothin'," he muttered. "So where's McDonald's," Vern asked. "A block up."

As they walked there, Teddy walked alongside Jugs. "Why do you wanna hang out with us, anyway," he asked. She smiled wanly. "I don't like girls." "Why?" "They don't like me." "Why?" Jugs rolled her eyes. "Guess." "Your namesake?" "Pretty much." "So, do you know our names?" "Not at first, but now I do. You guys just look cool."

Teddy blushed a little. "Do you think _I _look cool?" Jugs smirked again. "Cool enough." When they got to McDonald's, Gordie started asking questions. "So, Jugs, what do you wanna be when you grow up?"

Jugs sighed. "I wanna be famous, like Elizabeth Taylor. My name's Elizabeth, too, but my family calls me Betty. But you guys can call me Jugs." "You know," Teddy said. "You do look like someone famous. That girl on the Mickey Mouse Club, Annette Funicello." "Ugh, I hate her," Jugs said. "She's so fake." She started eating her hamburger and fries, and sipping her Sprite.

"How can you eat so much," Chris asked. Jugs shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I got a tapeworm." "What's your family like?" "It's me and my parents. They ignore me, and they feel bad about it. So they give me whatever I want. It's not as cool as it sounds. It gets lonely sometimes." "They sound like they suck," Teddy said. "They're okay sometimes. But most of the time, you'd be right."

"You're lonely," Gordie asked, sounding more sympathetic than before. "Yeah," Jugs admitted. "I didn't have a lot of friends back home either." "Oh." The boys were silent, regretting how they had behaved before. "Well," Chris said, breaking the silence. "We'll be your friends then." Jugs' whole face lit up, and that was when Teddy decided she was beautiful. "Thank you," she said with pure sincerity.

The next two years were filled with sleepovers, strip poker (Jugs always won), McDonald's runs and practical jokes. Jugs even made girlfriends with some girls in town and starred in all the school plays. She realized she had a crush on Teddy in sixth grade, when he willingly played the Romeo to her Juliet, even agreeing to wear tights. When everyone started pairing off about a month later, Teddy and Jugs were the first and most steadfast couple. So far they'd made it through the end of sixth grade.

Even though they always fought, they were deeply in love. They never actually broke up, and everyone knew Jugs Lake was "Teddy's girl."


	2. Tears on My Pillow

Chapter 1  
"I don't know how I'm going to do it," Betty "Jugs" Lake told her friend Darla "Bird" Horne. Bird's name came from her thin, wiry height and feather-like hair. She was gangly, and taller than her entire class at Castle Rock Elementary.

"Why do you want to, anyway," Bird said. Jugs had just told Bird at the Blue Point Diner how she had resolved to break up with Teddy Duchamp before junior high started. He had gone off into the woods with his friends to find a dead body, and told Jugs that she couldn't come. Not that she'd want to. Well, maybe she did, but of course she had acted like she didn't. Besides, if she had gone along, she would have ruined his good time by blurting out the bad news.

"Well? Why do you want to break up with him? Don't you like him still? And wouldn't it be keen if you were the only girl to start junior high with a boyfriend?"

Jugs nodded and grinned. "But don't you see, Bird? By the end of the first month, I'll have something better than some silly boy. An upperclassman. A ninth grader, even!"

Bird sighed at Jugs' plot. "Why would a ninth grader want to date a seventh grade girl," she asked.

Jugs laughed. "I could pass for ninth grade. I look amazing, like a Breck girl. 'Least, that's what my mom tells me when we talk."

Jugs still never saw her father much, but her mother was home more often, and wanted to be around her more. She supposed now that she was a little older and more interesting, her mother wanted to talk to her more. It wasn't necessarily right that her mother found her boring when she wasn't either an adorable baby or a "gorgeous young woman on the cusp of adolescence" (her mother's way of saying she was a few weeks from thirteen). But it was just how things were.

"What if you really hurt Teddy's feelings," Bird asks. "He really likes you, you know? And you've been going steady for almost ten months now."

"That was in sixth grade," Jugs pointed out. "And this summer. I've grown up a lot since then. Especially since Jimmy Goodrich, the basketball captain, asked me to go up to Devlin's Peak with him to listen to his new car stereo. He says it sounds just like Elvis is in the car with you."

"How does Jimmy have a car," Bird asked.

"His brother, Toby, lets him drive his in exchange for Jimmy not telling his parents about how he smokes and drinks at college," Jugs giggled. Cigarettes and cocktails were so glamourous. "I have to go on this date, Bird. So of course, I'm going to break things off first. It's the honorable thing to do, you know."

Bird rolled her eyes. Honor wasn't exactly a big thing for Jugs. This was all about a Goodrich, as things usually were in Castle Rock. The Goodrich family were like the head of Castle View, the peak of perfection. There were five kids, two boys and three girls, but no one ever had to wear hand me downs. The father was the CEO of the company that ran the local shoe factory, the mother a socialite who came from another rich family, the daughters all debutantes, and the sons all star athletes. No girl in her right mind would turn down a Goodrich.

"You know why he really wants to go out with you," Bird said, nodding at Jugs' eponymous D cups.

"So," Jugs shot back. "At least he wants me. Now, like I said, I still want to be Teddy's friend, but..."

"Good luck with that," Bird snorted. "Besides, you also know what people do at Devlin's Peak. It would be pretty fast for you to go up there at twelve."

"All we'll do is hold hands and kiss," Jugs sighed. "Girl Scouts' honor."

"Sure," Bird said sarcastically.

Jugs turned to stare at the door. She saw Teddy come in. "Shit, here he comes now," she hissed at Bird.

"Who, Jimmy?" Jugs rolled her eyes. "No, Teddy. Should I just do it, right here?"

Bird shook her head. "No, everyone from school is here. Take him outside, and try to be nice about it."

Jugs nodded and went over to him. She felt her heart fall into her stomach, knowing what she was about to do. What if it killed him? She swallowed again when she saw that all his friends were there. "I can't. Not with all his friends here," Jugs said, turning around and sitting back down.

"Come on," Bird urged. "Like I said, take him outside, and..."

"And what?" Both girls turned around and Teddy's grinning face staring back at them. He laughed at them. "Scared ya, didn't I?"

Jugs couldn't stand to look at him so happy. She could think of how he would feel when she told him that she was leaving him for another man. He might even cry. She felt so bad for him that she might cry herself.

"Why do you wanna see me outside," Teddy said, grinning.

Jugs bit her lip. "I have to tell you outside. It's...personal."

Teddy's grin grew wider as he followed her outside. They stood in the alleyway behind the diner, near the garbage cans. "Tears on My Pillow" was faintly heard from inside. Jugs bit her lip again.

Teddy just kept grinning. "So," he said. "I'm going to second, right?"

She shook her head. "No, Teddy, this is serious."

His joy changed into confusion. "Huh," he said.

"Ted," Jugs said. "I must be frank when I say...the fire is gone."

"What? What fire?"

Jugs sighed heavily. "The fire of our love," she continued. "I've found someone else."

Teddy shrugged. "That's cool," he said. Jugs understand his apathy to the breakup. He was still so in shock, he couldn't react completely.

"Ted," she said gently. "We'll always have sixth grade. _Always_." She nodded and saluted him as she began to walk away. "Here's looking at you, kid."

"Wait," Teddy suddenly said.

Jugs turned back around. "You mean, I'm not getting to second base," Teddy asked. "Not even out of pity?"

Jugs sneered. "Did you even understand what just happened," she snapped. "I just left you, because I have to fly free, like a bird. It was a very poignant moment. And all you thought about were your dishonest intentions?"

Teddy shrugged. "At least I didn't laugh. Because what you were saying was pretty funny."

"It. Was. Beautiful," Jugs persisted. She looked around to see if anyone was coming outside.

"Teddy," she said, switching back to her regretful voice. "I know this is hard for you to accept. I know that you're in denial about your true feelings of pain. I'll give you this one last kiss to hold on to."

Jugs went in for a short, powerful kiss, like in Casablanca. Teddy decided to French her and she Frenched back. He then attempted to slide his hand up her sweater.

Jugs jerked back. "Can't you take any seriously," she shrieked.

She then hauled off and slugged Teddy so hard it left a huge red mark on his face. Jugs left him in the alleyway as she raced inside to tell Bird she was going home. Little did Jugs know what lay ahead of her, the little girl who tried to grow up too fast.


End file.
